IMAGERY OF DESOLATION. 229 



awful and utter desolation. Take for an example the 

 denunciation upon Idumea, in Isa. xxxiv. : 



"And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, 

 and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof 

 shall become burning pitch. 



" It shall not be quenched night nor day ; the smoke 

 thereof shall go up for ever : from generation to genera- 

 tion it shall lie waste ; none shall pass through it for ever 

 and ever. 



" But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it ; the 

 owl also and the raven shall dwell in it : and he shall 

 stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones 

 of emptiness. 



" They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but 

 none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 



" And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and 

 brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an 

 habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. 



" The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the 

 wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his 

 fellow ; the screech-owl also shall rest there, and find for 

 herself a place of rest. 



"There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, 

 and hatch, and gather under her shadow ; there shall the 

 vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate." 



A fine accumulation is -here of wild and dreary images ; 

 and I do not know a better exemplification of the category 

 of natural phenomena under consideration than this awfuJ 

 passage of Holy Writ. 



